Hoping to be drafted in April, Jordan Kovacs stepped up his training during his final season at U-M. / Tony Ding/Associated Press

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Jordan Kovacs has told the story over and over again for years. But his prospective future employers all wanted to hear it again.

So he told them about trying out for the Michigan football team -- twice -- working his way onto the field, into a starting spot and eventually up to captain.

That's how job interviews work. The boss asks and you gladly answer.

And Kovacs was glad to do it. Because until about a year ago, he never considered that the NFL would actually consider him. His only dream was to play at Michigan.

However, last year his former teammates in the NFL and those lining up their interviews told him NFL teams kept asking about him. So when his senior year ended, Kovacs was entirely focused on professional football -- and the results showed.

Working out in Ann Arbor with U-M strength coach Aaron Wellman and U-M's best draft hope, Denard Robinson, Kovacs built toward the March 14 pro day and impressed the assembled scouts. He ran a 4.58 40-yard dash -- he said teams probably expected a 4.7 -- and performed well enough in the other drills that he would have placed in the middle of the pack among safeties at the NFL combine had he been invited.

Much of that credit went to Wellman, who designed a combine-style program for Robinson and Kovacs different from their team- and game-specific plans.

"It's what a lot of NFL scouts put stock in, so obviously it was important to perform well there," Kovacs said. "There's some carryover from those drills to the game play, but it's not your typical workout."

Kovacs has done plenty of interviews, including fly-outs to Oakland and Kansas City ("they have the first overall pick, so maybe I'll be the No. 1 pick," he joked).

He drew a lot of attention at the Texas vs. the Nation All-Star Game, which got him a chance to talk with many scouts. A strong pro day performance combined with talking to nearly every team in the league has Kovacs convinced he could hear his name called during this weekend's NFL draft.

Even if it isn't, Kovacs will surely get a phone call for someone's rookie camp.

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"It's been kind of interesting to see how the different teams approach it," Kovacs said. "Some teams just don't like to show their hand and talking to some guys who have been drafted, they had no contact with those teams before. So it'll be interesting ... to get the whole process over with and finally play some ball."

He'll be busy over the next few weeks with final exams, an expected trip to some NFL team and the May 4 commencement.

He planned to use his movement science/kinesiology degree to go on to physical therapy school or into coaching. But for now, it's about pursuing the pro dream he didn't even have until 15 months ago.

Wherever he goes, his story of walk-on to captain will be told again -- and may be the reason he ends up with a team.

"What I went through to play ball at Michigan will help me tremendously," Kovacs said. "I wasn't fed with a silver spoon and had to earn everything. I know it's going to be like that at the next level."

“This draft is extremely light on players who scare defenses with the ball in their hands, and Robinson is an interesting guy to experiment with,” Kiper wrote. “Offensive coordinator Jay Gruden can find ways to get him the ball.”

We have a bunch of chats for you leading up to the NFL draft this week. Click on the name to submit a question: Michael Atkinson of Boise State and Windsor (1 p.m. Monday), Darren Keyton of CMU (1 p.m. Tuesday), Latavius Murray of UCF (11 a.m. Wednesday), Joe Glendening of Hillsdale (noon Wednesday), Reid Fragel of Grosse Pointe and OSU (1 p.m. Wednesday) and Lions writer Dave Birkett (11 a.m. Thursday). Also join us for live blogs of the first three rounds.